Little Blowhole Art Bar Kiama Exhibition

Little Blow Hole Art Bar Exhibition

Golden Days

December 6th - January 6th

4 Tingria Crescent

Kiama NSW

Art for me is the ongoing exploration of endless possibilities and the more I learn the broader these possibilities become. In ‘Golden Days’, I am honouring those of the Golden Age who in some ways have become my teachers. They emphasised ordinary human life through landscapes, portraiture and objects of beauty with carefully composed arrangements that were indicative of national pride, wealth and a thriving creative period.

Drawn to Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rachel Ruysch’s luminosity, technical virtuosity and sense of harmony I began to draw on the parallels between 17thcentury Holland, colonial and 21stcentury Australia. Trade, possession and the accumulation of material wealth, how women were seen or not and how in some works I might subvert the underlying themes of national pride with the strange and quirky.

Refusal - Bronte

Oil on Linen 2018

61 cm x 61 cm

Wild Cherry

Oil on linen & embroidery patch

H76.5cm x W56cm

SOLD

Girl of Gold Honey Sweet

Oil on linen & embroidery patch

H76.5cm x W56cm

SOLD

Golden Land 2

Oil on canvas

Oak Frame

20cm x 20m

SOLD

Golden Land 4

Oil on canvas

Oak Frame

20cm x 20m

Garden of Delights

Oil on linen

H61cm x W122cm

Thread of Memory 5

Oil on linen

25cm x 25cm

Thread of Memory 6

Oil on linen

25cm x 25cm

Tempestas Goddess of Storms

Oil on board

White Frame

H33.5cmx 26.5cm

SOLD

In the Still of the Night 2

Oil on board

White frame

H33.5cmx 26.5cm

In the Still of the Night 3

Oil on board

White frame

H33.5cmx 26.5cm

Night Seaspray

Oil on canvas

50cm x 50cm

All We Can't See Exhibition

ADELAIDE CONVENTION CENTRE

All We Can’t See – Australian Labor Party’s National Conference

Group Exhibition illustrating and responding to the Nauru Files

Evening Event with Labour MP’s, media and artists 16th December – 6pm

December 16th - 18st Sunday to Wednesday

North Terrace, Adelaide SA

Mosman Art Prize

Girl of Gold - Honey Sweet

Finalist Mosman Art Prize

Oil & Embroidery on linen

H76.5cm x 56cm

I see women's histories as a frayed and shabby tapestry forgotten and left in a corner for moths to nibble on. Metaphorically speaking, in loosening the threads to unravel the past I am creating the space to create a richer tapestry full of memories, meaning and hope.

Fisher's Ghost Art Award

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Homage to Joan Lindsay

Finalist Fisher’s Ghost Art Award

H84cm x W112cm

Oil on Linen

When I came across Joan Lindsay’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, I wondered if she had been influenced by Frederick McCubbin’s ‘Lost’ and Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’. These lost or vanishing girls with their ambiguous conclusions have never left me. ‘Picnic’ I believe, was the beginning of my passion for the Gothic with its female transgressions, lack of restraint and the overturning of normality. It also intrigues me that maternity is often absent and it is fascinating how the Gothic often “emerges in literature during times of cultural anxiety.” Patricia MurphyWhen I came across Joan Lindsay’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, I wondered if she had been influenced by Frederick McCubbin’s ‘Lost’ and Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’. These lost or vanishing girls with their ambiguous conclusions have never left me. ‘Picnic’ I believe, was the beginning of my passion for the Gothic with its female transgressions, lack of restraint and the overturning of normality. It also intrigues me that maternity is often absent and it is fascinating how the Gothic often “emerges in literature during times of cultural anxiety.” Patricia Murphy

Heysen Prize for Landscape

Dark Ages #1

Oil on linen

H83.5cm x 111.5cm

In James Bridlebook “New Dark Age” he states in his chapter on climate “The climate crisis is also a crisis of knowledge and understanding,” Bridle writes, “What we perceive as weather in the moment shadows the globe as climate: tiny moments of turbulent activity through which we can barely grasp an unseen, unknowable totality.”

In response Niki Seth-Smith, Open Democracy states“ Climate becomes the grand metaphor for our overwhelming loss of knowledge and control.”“This brings us back to the theme of uncertainty. Humans are afraid of the darkness for a reason. We’re especially afraid if we’re blind-folded and others around us are able to see.”

Drawing on the above concepts I have begun a series of oil paintings that explore the notion of darkness, shadows, turbulence, the unseen, loss, blindness and finally the emptiness of both the landscape and ourselves when we are forsaken or forsake.

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize Semi finalist

I am interested in preserving humanity and culture with all its complexities through portraiture. I like to paint portraits that show various human conditions and try to portray the interior self of the sitter by looking for something that is unique to them.

Through the subtle and direct effects of mark making and in this case painting, I am exploring the language that speaks of the human condition. The values and concerns of society and the effect that has on the individual, on how we navigate the world and the residual interchange between past, present and future.

Tracing an Invisible Presence - Scarlett

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize semi-finalist

Oil on linen

H56cm x W 76.5cm

Refusal - Bronte

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize semi-finalist

Oil on linen

61cm x 61cm

John Copes Portrait Prize

Mug Shot - Self Portrait

Finalist John Copes Portrait Prize

Oil on linen

I have always loved history and vintage clothes and as I reach into my box of dress-ups and find a cap and apron a story of me from my imaginary past starts to unfold.

I wonder what it would have been like for someone like me, a single mother trying to make ends meet, I think I would have been trained as a house maid, but through tenacity I have become a lady’s maid.

Concealed within politeness and curtsies I am resilient, self-reliant and quick to see opportunities or shenanigans. I am honest and work hard but the master wants to have his way with me, and his wife sees me as a threat.

She places precious items of hers in my travel box and calls the peelers and I am sent off to the Old Bailey. The master does not come to my defence even though he knows I am innocent.

I am given a death sentence but soon after a reprieve is given and I am sent out to Australia on the Princess Charlotte.

With every brush stroke the expression looking back at me changes and I fight with the challenges of ageing and wanting to smooth out my lines. My lips have pursed in concentration and my eyes seem somewhat disapproving. But here I am, one brush stroke at a time to form a small part of the tapestry of who I am.

Sunshine Coast Art Prize

The Submissive Self is a Shadowed Self

I became fascinated by the way women are often depicted as submissive or repentant within religious history paintings. Although I believe that I am equal to man, there is something beguiling about these works that I feel both drawn to and repelled by.

The Submissive Self is influenced by the old masters use of chiaroscuro (light and dark) as well as many glazes.

The book represents human knowledge and its temporary nature. The skull represents human mortality; it is a symbol of wisdom that comes from living in the light of the truths. Mary Magdalene is bathed in light, her mirror image is placed in shadow which represents the darkening veil of submission, of not seeking knowledge and the strength of finding ones’ truth.

Oil & mixed media on board

H40cm x W40cm

Waverley Art Prize

Fading into View

2018 Waverley Art Prize

‘Fade into View’ touches on the ambiguous nature of dreams, beauty and memories, of the unseen and unheard and the continual complexities of societal pressures and gender imbalances.

Oil on Arches Huile Paper

H49cm x W41cm

Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize

‘Intangible Mysteries of a Sense of Place’

Steeped in a naturalistic Australian landscape, ‘Intangible Mysteries of a Sense of Place’

is the transformation of an idealised image from Australian art history; I wanted to bring forth its hidden potential by threading a historical lineage that is still relevant today, to nudge and reconfigure the original historical narrative to give voice to how our experiences of the land enrich our understanding of who we are, for good or for bad.

When I began this oil painting, I was interested in creating a subtle and ambiguous work, binding the figure to the landscape rather than ownership of the land, as the work unfolded, however, this semi-transparent ghostly figure wove into larger metaphors of land, pain and violence.

Oil on Linen

H61cm x W91cm

Framed - Available

Signal Point Gallery

Goolwa South Australia

The Other Art Fair - Melbourne

The Other Art Fair

PRESENTED BY SAATCHI ART

The Facility, Melbourne, Australia

Thursday 2nd - Sunday 5th, August 2018

Dreaming of Embroidery Behind the Mask

Oil on Linen

H77cm x W57cm

Percival Portrait Painting Prize

I am incredibly excited to announce that my self portrait has been selected as a finalist in the Percival Portrait Painting Prize!

Wyndham Art Prize

Huge thanks to the Wyndham Art Gallery, curators Megan Evans and Maree Clark for this incredible opportunity. Judged this year by Charlotte Day, Director of Monash University Museum of Art.

March 30 2018 - June 10 2018

www.wyncc.com.au

Veil #01

I am a silhouette and the veil of my past keeps me still in the dark.

Here We See - Gallery There - 'Out Front' Exhibition

This project was initiated by curator Marielle Soni and artist Claire Bridge, founder of Artworldwomen who saw an opportunity to present the diverse practices of Australian female artists in celebration of International Women’s Week. It was an absolute honour and privilege to have been selected to participate in this wonderful exhibition.

Veil #03 & #04

2 x Oil & mixed media on board - 2018 - 39cm x 31.5cm

I am a silhouette and the veil of my past keeps me still in the dark.

Yellow House Gallery 'All We Can't See

It was an absolute honour and privilege to have been invited to participate in this incredibly moving and harrowing exhibition.

Supported by Human Rights Watch, the All We Can't See project was initiated by two book designers, Arielle Gamble and Daniel New, who saw an opportunity to use art to engage a broader Australian audience in reading the Nauru Files. In August 2016 The Guardian published The Nauru Files, leaked incident reports written by staff in Australian's detention centre on Nauru between 2013 and 2015.

These files deal 2,116 separate incidents, including many cases of assault, sexual abuse, self-harm, child abuse and abhorrent living conditions endured by asylum seekers and refugees in the care of the Australian Government. Despite the harrowing nature of the files, the situation remains and the abuse in ongoing. In the absence of media access to the island, the objective was too illustrate these stories through creative expression, using art to shed light on all we can't see.